This background paper provides some preliminary estimates of the global incidence of chronic poverty for the Chronic Poverty Report 2004-05. Chronic poverty has been defined as remaining below the poverty line for at least five years, with welfare measured in terms of expenditure or in income. Using the latest estimates on the magnitude of static dollar a day poverty available from The World Bank as well aspanel data estimates of the unconditional probabilities of the currently poor staying poor, the number of people living in chronic poverty has been estimated by region.